Resurrection Festival: A Celebration of Faith and Music

The fourth annual Festival of the Resurrection took place on April 11, 2026, in Madrid, Spain. Held in the iconic Plaza Cibeles, the event attracted an audience of over 60,000 people.

The celebration, which is driven by the Asociación de Católicos Propagandistas, has consolidated its position as an iconic event in the city. The festivities focused on the intersection of faith and music, utilizing the public square as a venue for shared joy.

Musical Performances and Lineup

The event featured a diverse array of musical acts to mark the Easter celebration. The lineup included performances by the band Hakuna, the Andalusian group Gypsy Kings, and Jamaican singer Liz Mitchell.

These artists provided the musical framework for the gathering, supporting the event’s goal of using different musical forms to express the joy of Christ’s Resurrection.

Papal Message and Spiritual Themes

During the celebration, Archbishop Piero Pioppo, the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain and Andorra, delivered a message from Pope Leo XIV. In the address, the Pontiff blessed the use of music as a vehicle for expressing spiritual joy.

Pope Leo XIV expressed a desire that the very lives of Christians might become a concert, suggesting that the celebration of Easter should extend beyond the event itself and into everyday existence.

The Pope stated that it is good and necessary that Easter should also find expression in music, in encounter, and in shared joy, noting that faith in Jesus Christ purifies and elevates human joy to bring it to fulfillment.

The message also connected the historical accounts of the Resurrection to the modern world, emphasizing how the event transforms cities and history through the lives of witnesses and martyrs.

Just as, immediately after the Resurrection of the Lord more than two thousand years ago, “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,” came out of their tombs and “entered” Jerusalem, so too today Easter does not “remain sealed in the tomb,” but “breaks into the city and enters everyday life through the lives of men and women.”

Pope Leo XIV

The 2026 gathering marks the fourth consecutive year that the Festival of the Resurrection has been hosted in Plaza Cibeles, continuing its growth as a significant cultural and religious music event in the Spanish capital.